After 50 years, Tito & Helen wed again!

Our love affair, may it always be

A flame to burn through eternity

So take my hand with a fervent prayer

That we may live and we may share

A love affair to remember

After a post-midnight elopement, Tito and Helen began to live happily ever after only after they were married en grande with the blessing of Helen’s strict mom.

That was the song that Senate president Tito Sotto sang last Sunday night, Sept. 22, at the Chairman’s Villa of Solaire to celebrate his and wife Helen Gamboa’s 50th wedding anniversary. Very early that morning, the couple renewed their vows at the same church in Sto. Tomas, Batangas where they had their “clandestine” (find out why in a while) first wedding same date half a century ago.

The reception was so private and so exclusive that not more than 70 were invited (except for Tito, no other politician was around), including the couple’s children (Apples, Lala, Quezon City Vice Mayor Gian and Ciara who have given their parents 10 grandchildren), two of Helen’s sisters, Tito’s brothers (Val, Maru and Vic with wife Pauleen Luna), close family friend Joey de Leon (with daughter Jocas) and the barkada (led by Susan Roces, Regal Matriarch Lily Monteverde, Tony “Mr. T” Tuviera,  Pat-P Daza, Dolor Guevarra and daughter Anes, Shirley Kuan, Lilibeth “Betchay” Nakpil, Gelo Jamias and Danny Dolor).

The “brand-renewed” bride responded to the “brand-renewed” groom with a likewise meaningful song: You and I are going on together/Till the time we have is gone together/Watch the evening growing on together/Growing older, growing closer/Making memories that light the sky/That only time can make/That only love can make/That only we can make/You and I.

In photo with them are their children (from left) Lala, Apples, Ciara and Quezon City Vice Mayor Gian

As usual and as expected when the Sottos get together, they turn the affair into a musical to remember. Ciara rendered three songs (Caruso, Noche de Ronda and Al di la, the theme song of the Suzanne Pleshette-Troy Donahue movie Lovers Must Learn formerly titled Rome Adventure); while the apos wowed everybody with A Million Dreams.

The VST & Company (the four Sotto brothers joined by Joey) provided the night’s lilting beat with the classic hit Ikaw ang Aking Mahal over and over again, prompting the chef and his staff to peep in as well as diners nearby.

The Tito-Helen romance is indeed an affair to remember because it’s not your usual happily-ever-after. Theirs is a love story that grows sweeter in the retelling, so full of drama and adventure that would require several episodes if and when Charo Santos-Concio “dared” retell it on her long-running drama anthology MMK (Maalaala Mo Kaya).

Fifty years ago, Tito and Helen were in their early 20s when they eloped. Helen’s mom was strict and over-protective watching her with eagle’s eyes even on the set of movies. Helen was then shooting almost every day as the era’s Dancing Queen (dressed in knee-high boots and micro-mini, with large round earrings that jingled as they swang this way and that as Helen swayed to the Bang Shang-Alang beat).

While the mom was in dreamland, Helen got so frantic that she got in and out of the house, akyat-panaog, waiting for a “sign” if what she and Tito were about to “commit” was right. Tito was waiting outside urging Helen to hurry up, so Helen climbed over the concrete fence of their White Plains home and fell. Talk about literally “falling” in love!

Then, complete with the required documents (marriage contract, etc., no need for parental consent because they were of legal age), they hied off to Sto. Tomas 30 minutes past midnight but there was a hitch. The judge who would marry them was abroad. Tito’s kumpare to the rescue. The kumpare knew the parish priest and, well, the rest is her/history.

It didn’t end there. Tito brought Helen back to her waiting mom who couldn’t do anything but…cry. Another hitch: Helen’s mom didn’t allow Helen to stay with Tito because Helen was at the peak of her career and the elopement had to be kept hush-hush. It was only after Tito and Helen got married en grande in church (not in Sto. Tomas) did the mom let the “newly-rewed” live together.

A line from one of Helen’s hit songs goes, paraphrased here to suit the mood: I’ll be “with you” till the 31st of June.

That simply means may forever, unless you add one more day to the month of June.

I will end this piece with a poem specially written for Tito and Helen by Joey (The Philippine STAR’s “poet-in-residence”):

Sawa na tayo sa Rolex at Patek Philippe

Suot na natin nagbibilang ng steps

Sinabay pa sa oras waring naiinip

At binibilang din pati nga ating heartbeat (ngik)

Ngunit datapwa’t naturalmente subalit

Masisira at kulang ang lahat ng fitbit

Sa tibok ng pagmamahal kay Helen na gift

Ng iyong asawang presidente ng Senate

Nagumpisa love story nila wala pang tweet

At di pa nga uso “Ang Pasko ay Sumapit”

But dahil matibay umabot ng 50th

Let’s all be thankful lahat tayo’y makaka-chirit!

At the Solaire reception was Helen’s barkada (back row, from left): Pat-P Daza, Anes Victorino and mom Dolor Guevarra, Regal Matriarch Lily Monteverde, Gelo Jamias and Danny Dolor; and (seated, also from left) Lilibeth ‘Betchay’ Nakpil, Susan Roces and Shirley Kuan

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(E-mail reactions at [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos, visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on Instagram @therealrickylo.)